Wow! I know the first week of a babies life is always an emotional, tiring, growing experience but I don't think there is any way to actually be prepared for everything. The exhaustion of delivery, the emotion of a beautiful new life, and adjusting to having this little person completely dependent on you is quite a change. Micah was able to experience his first Father's Day the day after Jacob was born. Jake had a cute outfit to honor daddy for father's day and I gave Micah a new OSU shirt. What perfect timing for Father's Day!
We were pretty lucky and were discharged from the hospital the day after delivery. I had expected to be in the hospital another night but we were pleasantly suprised when the nurse asked us if we wanted to go home. We started getting everything ready to go and the doctors started their final checks to get us out. One of the last things they told us was that Jacob's jaundice levels were slightly elevated and that we would need to come into the hospital the next day for blood work to make sure they were still ok.
When we arrived home we took some family pictures as we first entered our home as a family. This was also Gizmo's first time to meet his "brother". Gizmo has been around quite a few babies over the last few years so he wasn't that surprised to see Jake. I think he's been a little more surprised that this one never seems to leave.
Our first evening home, Brooks and Gavin Perry came over to meet Jake for the first time. They weren't able to make it to the hospital since Miles got sick and we were discharged earlier than expected. Gavin has been excited about meeting Jacob for months! He was so cute checking him out and meeting him.
The next day, Micah and I took Jake to a hospital here in Jubail just to have his blood work checked. They called us a couple hours later with the results and wanted us to bring Jake in to be admitted. AHH!! We weren't really sure what we wanted to do since this was not our preferred hospital and we really didn't enjoy our experience with the doctor when we were there. So I called our hospital and gave them the numbers and they told us we were still ok but would need to have it checked the next day. We also talked to Micah's brother who also said we were still ok but that we would need to monitor his levels. After doing some research on jaundice, we found that frequent feedings and exposure to light helps with jaundice. So my Mom and I decided to take shifts that night feeding Jake every 1.5 hours and sleeping with him under the only fluorescent light in our house. It was a long, exhausting, scary, emotional night.
After our experience at the local hospital, I decided the next day I wanted to return to SAAD to have him checked out. This way if they wanted to admit him we would be at the hospital I wanted. And our fears were confirmed and the doctor wanted to admit my little baby. A huge blessing was that this doctor was willing to work with me and allow Jake to be admitted into the Pediatrics wing instead of the NICU. This allowed me to stay the whole time with him and continue to breastfeed. The only bummer of this room was that it was semi-private so I was sharing a room with other people. However, in the end it worked out just fine. Jake and I were well taken care of and I was able to get some rest while he baked in the tanning bed.
24 hours later we were once again discharged from the hospital! I was so excited to get to be going back home and hopefully this time to stay. His jaundice levels were still slightly high but they were on the down trend and he was looking better every hour.
In his first week, Jake also had his first sponge bath. Our little boy is NOT a fan of diaper changes, changing clothes, or being naked in any way. So needless to say so far he is not a fan of bath time.
Jake also went to his first birthday party in his first week of life. His friend Savannah had her first birthday party on the compound in Jubail. It was an Owl themed party and Savannah was looking super cute. Maybe one day she will go for the younger men :) For some reason I didn't bring my camera to this so I will have to get some pictures from Laura.
During the first week we were blessed with many home cooked meals from different families. It was such a blessing to have dinner taken care of multiple nights and lots of times even leftovers for lunch! One night we went over to the Perry's for our dinner and Jacob and Miles were able to finally meet. Miles was so enthralled with Jake.
At the end of his first week of life, Jacob got the best 1 week present- he met his Papa! Papa arrived from the USA late Friday night. What a great way to celebrate 1 week!
